


masterpiece theatre

by transishimaru



Category: Akira (Anime & Manga), モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Flashbacks, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-11-23 12:12:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18151748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transishimaru/pseuds/transishimaru
Summary: if i burn out, and slip away --(this is just a part i portray)





	1. Chapter 1

_This place smells like dryer sheets._

Eyes open. Oh. Duh. It’s a laundromat.

His hands fold over fabric without thought, as if he’s always been there, just space out and come to. Daydreaming. Not at all like this world was made new.

He wonders if it’s real. It could be another hallucination. A side-effect of the medication, or of not taking it.

But he didn’t _feel_ those, and he feels this, pre-shrunk cotton on his fingers. A gym uniform, like they used to have, somewhere else, before the world exploded. Not something he would have, student at a reform school, no future and no need for normal classes.

If he has clothing, a basket, laundry to fold, he lives here. Somewhere.

His mind doesn’t know, but his body does. Muscles and their memories. Minds and _their_ memories, across lifetimes, using half-broken washers on dusty jeans that won’t fix the wear and tear and _Yamagata you can’t wash your whites with your colors, you can’t put wool in the dryer, what are you, stupid? even Tetsuo knows that_ -

Inhale, exhale. Something under his feet is rumbling, like the side of a mountain when rocks start to fall. He can imagine himself floating, drifting in space, body morphing and gelatinous. Kaori and Kaneda and the children from the lab in oblivion, stars and planets on him like eyes.

Count to three.

When he opens his eyes, nothing has changed. Yellow washer, yellow dryer, yellow walls, blue basket. His laundry is folded and he can go home.

When he steps outside, it smells like salt.

X

He has never noticed time moving so slowly before. Maybe it never has. Maybe this is his punishment for going over the edge: quiet where there was noise, solitude where there was an army of followers. He doesn’t know which was worse. Maybe both. Maybe neither.

He reaches out his hand, and stops.

He’s been wondering if his power transferred over. Would it be a gift or a punishment if it did? He’s been too –

                                                                …he doesn’t want to find out.

                                                                                                                                                                ~~(scared.)~~

He drops back down on a mattress, box spring, bed frame, how did he buy this thing? He has money, and doesn’t want it. He could go out and look around; he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want anything.

 

~~(He wants his friends back.)~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not going to be explaining anything about the plot rn. i'll add more characters/relationships as it become relevant.
> 
> \- formatting is not quite what i want it to be but;;  
> \- i am fully caught up on mp100 but not on the reigen spinoff so no spoilers about the latter pls!  
> \- i have only finished through vol.4 of akira, please no manga-specific spoilers for after that (i have seen the anime)
> 
> title - ["masterpiece theatre i"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ6Mh_mve7U), marianas trench


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> first it comes on quiet, creeping slow

One. Two. Three. Fold, crease, iron, press. Cloth napkins. He is almost sixteen, he lives alone, he is working.

At least it’s not a bar this time.

They are stricter here. No one his age smokes, no one his age drinks, everyone goes to school and wears their uniforms.

If he thinks about it – and he tries not to – he doesn’t miss the taste of bitter, stale, powdered dust, sandpaper tongue. This life is not exciting. But he doesn’t miss when it was.

He isn’t sure if what he makes per hour is a lot, if it’s even enough to pay his rent. He doesn’t know how he got the job, how he’s doing in school.

It’s summer. It’s break. Would it matter if it wasn’t?

Press, press, press harder. The sound of scraping dishes, aluminum on porcelain, clanging and not breaking. Someone singing off-key.

Recognition. Should be shock, but it’s numb. He survived a fall from the sky, buildings collapsing, a child destroying the city around them. He’s here, he’s _here_ , of course he is.

He remembers, with a feeling of thinking underwater, being in science or psychology or something class, learning the basics. Three reactions to any situation. And he had learned, had taught himself fight. Not to be a burden. Not to be carried. Not to be trampled. And it had only worked when he no longer needed it. He had never been one for flight.

Now, he freezes.

Kaneda does that to him.

X

Lie down, hands on stomach. He can feel this, every ripple. Tetsuo doesn’t miss beer, but right now, he misses the pills. He feels like he could vomit.

He expects him through the door. Isn’t that how this works. Always, Tetsuo appears, Kaneda follows. It had been the reverse as children, when Tetsuo had been –

                                                                                                (weak. weaker.)

                                                                                                                                (he never stopped being…)

Spots blur the ceiling into his hand, grey, bone beat the skin and grinding cartilage. For one second he thinks he’s back, his arm metal. He’s imagined stranger things than this.

He’s imagined…

                                Bile presses against his teeth. He swallows it down.

Someone next door is throwing plates. A blonde middle schooler who lives alone. They’ve stared at one another before in an empty hallway, both with small groceries. Eggs, milk, some kind of cereal. He lives alone, Tetsuo is sure, and his temper is bad.

They had stared, and turned away.

He knows what                                                 [it used to mean]

                                And if Kaneda is here

                                                                                [D I D  I  D O  T H A T ?]

Because he _would_. If he destroyed the world, and started it anew, he would bring in Kaneda Kei Akira Kaneda Yamagata Kaori Kaneda Kiyoko Masaru Takashi Kaneda, only people he had known before (Kaneda), unoriginal  and (Kaneda) obsessive.

                                (金田正太郎)

His need to                                                         ~~FREEZE~~                                                  he had not run into him after all. He could tell himself he’d just imagined it, but he would know he was only lying to himself. It’s him, but maybe it’s not the same. Maybe he won’t remember. Maybe Tetsuo should let him stay that way. Maybe things will be better.

X

 

 

 

 

(He’s imagined he felt loved.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lost and buried under everything that i need...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey update i finished reading the akira manga so you can go ahead and mention that all you want  
> actually in general i'd love to talk about the manga & anime i'm stuck in hell here
> 
> \- tetsuo's coherency will level out as time goes on and he gets used to his surroundings

A blur moves past him. But not fast enough for him not to see something he wishes he didn’t. Why his blond neighbor is naked is (questionable) not his business, but (how did he move with that speed?) his usually haughty demeanor is (could he be? could he be -?) broken down into shame. He has to stop long enough to unlock the door and doesn’t notice Tetsuo stare.

He wants to tell himself he’s imagining things. That he hasn’t eaten enough. It’s his headache from the rain.

…

                Work. Right,

he has to go to work. Even if his stomach is nagging and pulling at him

                _I should check on him later_ **You never check on people later** _I could start this is a new life_ **Ever since Kaneda –**

scuff scuff. _Ever since Kaneda what?_ **Ever since Kaneda checked up on you once and then twice and never stopped checking up on you and** _you returned an act of kindness in a world that gave you nothing with aggression and_ **now you’re here and you’re scared** _and so is that boy and it will not kill you to check up on him later._

                                                                …                             [BREATHE!!]

Tetsuo feels like (he’s going to die one day not today but some day and he will do this again) he can’t breathe, something flickering like a low-burning candle in him (but his face you can’t remember his face or his name it’s gone now) and he bends, fingers curling in the fence as he (help me Kaneda please help me) tries to slow his heart rate, start breathing again.

(make it stop…

                                …please…

                                                                …I can’t do this again.)

And just like that, it’s stopped.

                Tetsuo can stand up. He’s breathing again.

                                In through the nose, out through the mouth.

He has to get to work.

X

“Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey –“

It is over. There is no wait, no suspense, he is not the master of his own destiny and Kaneda makes the first move, again. It’s awkward having his body this close but Kaneda has never known the definition of personal space.

“I saw you earlier but –“ His hand is on the wallpaper there are no gloves his nails are clipped short, why is he leaning over Tetsuo like this? “I don’t think you heard me.”

“No, I didn’t.” _But did I? Did I?_

“Oh, shit –“ the sound of nails on vinyl. So not paper at all. “Look, I’m helpin’ him, see!”

He’s bad at it. The napkins. His hands don’t tremble but the fingers don’t move in diligent coordination and he fumbles. Tetsuo has never seen it.

But that grin, lopsided, producing something half-assed

                                                                                                (beat)

                                                                                                                their boss waves a hand.

                                                                His shoulders relieve.

“So. I’m Shotaro Kaneda.”

                                Kaneda.

                                                                His name is the same.

                                                                                Even that…

                                                                                                What should he say?

                                                                                                                “I know.”

                                                                “Hunh? Oh – haha, yeah!”

Arm stretched out rubbing the back of his head

                                                                (didn’t he do that for pretty girls wouldn’t he do that for Kei?)

                                                                                                Sheepish. Nothing here to be                      “I guess the boss told you, right?” He can’t look at his face. He can’t look at him and not

                                                                                                (beat)

Explode.

“I didn’t get yours.”

                                                (beat beatbeat)

“Tetsuo” _say my name_ “Shima.”

(beat     beat beat beat                  beat beat             beat)

“Nice to meet you,” (beat             beat beat             beat beat) “Shima-kun.”

Flatline.

X

In the end he forgot (selfish, self-absorbed, self-centered, narcissist) to check on his (sick he’s sick I can hear him through the walls) neighbor. On his own he is (dying) sweating (sinking) profusely like last time –

                                                                                                                NO THIS WILL NOT BE LIKE!

                There goes the window.

                He is crying.

                Shima. Shima. Kaneda always called him Tetsuo and now he called him Shima and it’s a punishment because (don’t say it) because (but you know it) because…

X

Everything stops moving. Tetsuo falls asleep.

X

(he wanted

                                to be

                                                loved

                                                                but,

                                                                                he was

                                                                                                …afraid…

                                                                                                                                of it being

                                                                                                                                                                by

                                                                                                                                                                                him.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when all i want is ~~you~~


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> every word is calculated,  
> never questioned or debated

He has ~~admitted~~ accepted now that he was _?is?_ in love with

                                                                                                                                                                Shotaro Kaneda.

X

That hurts to even

                Think.

But he did that, didn’t he? He     saved    what he could    _for him_.

X

Hanazawa Teruki. He is fourteen. Tetsuo does not ask why he lives alone.

                                                                                                                                                                                (yet.)

But he brings him soup and they stare and he wonders again if his powers are here. If feelings move across space without words.

He misses when they used to.

As it is now they pause between pauses and Hanazawa stares at his soup. The metal clinks. The spoon bends.

                (but only in tetsuo’s mind it’s just in his mind his imagination is playing tricks again)

“I get fevers when I lose.” Lose. “It’s silly, but I don’t lose often.”

It’s a lot to think about. If Tetsuo got sick every time he lost

(he’d be dead.)

(maybe that would be better.)

He doesn’t know what to say.

                                                                And neither does his neighbor.

“I’m Tetsuo, by the way,” he says, words so fast they slur into mush, desperate to hear his first name but oh he shouldn’t admit that –

“Teru,” Teru says. “If we’re exchanging first na-“

The easy smile breaks and his face goes green. He drops the bowl and bolts, horrid retching sounds ringing from the other room and                                _the bowl didn’t break the bowl didn’t hit the ground the bowl levitates in an aura of unattractive blacks and greens oh god oh no and –_

Teru has returned, his blue eyes in wide transfixtions of hazy dull surprise. He doesn’t comment on the floating bowl or the broken spoon or the sweat on Tetsuo’s cheeks. He only says “thanks.”

X

“Was it worth it, Tetsuo?

                Everything you did…

                                Everything you destroyed…

                                                Are you happy, now?”

 

 

(I’m sorry, Kaori)

 

 

He wakes up in tears.

But at least he doesn’t scream.

X

Kaneda yells, like he would sometimes, too fast to tell the words apart. Or maybe, Tetsuo really is just stupid, and his brain is speeding everything up. Two calls of his name sound like “Shima-Shima,” sing-song.

He can’t believe he’s hearing it here, of all places. Meeting him like this, again, at school (repetition)

His breath is warm on Tetsuo’s cheek. Smells like candy, not sour like…

                                                                                                                                                Before.

(does he do drugs in this life does  
he smoke in this life does he fight  
in this life does he ride bikes in  
this life?)

Are we still…

The arm pressed over his shoulder **burns** him up, tight grasp, they’re nearly the same height and Tetsuo still slouches.

( _keep walking keep walking he’ll think the heartbeat is exercise_ )

“I didn’t know you went here!” he rubs his nose on the back of his hand and it’s gross but it’s familiar and a sharp pang (beatbeat beatbeatebeat  beat) in Tetsuo’s chest how familiar (beatbeatbeat           beatbeat) one small gesture is, like home* is coming with him.

                                                                                *however much of a home Neo Tokyo ever was

~~Kaneda was~~

when he was with _him_

STOP HAVING THESE THOUGHTS AT SCHOOL!!

…             .               not ‘stop havingthese thoughts.’ ?

… I can’t deny it.

                                “Hey, yo! Earth to Shima-kun!” A red blur in front of his face – no, wait, not red. No gloves. No bike?

Wait huh hm did  
anyone have a bike now  
he hasn’t seen many like  
everyone here walks everywhere  
even that delinquent kid from  
the middle school who showed  
up at the apartment looking for Teru -

Warm and soft on the side of his neck, his skin tingles. And he knows that’s fingers. That’s the warmth of human connection. Kaneda should never move his hand. Kaneda should touch him all the time. He should cup his cheek and he should hold him and he should grab his wrist and run off with him and Tetsuo should stop thinking about this when Kaneda is _right there_.

“Shima-kun, you look –“

                                                _You look like shit, Tetsuo!_

                                                                                                “Sick.”

                “It’s just a cold.” Don’t touch me. Move your hand away. Move away from his hand. Your shoulder is **burning**. Oh good his hand is moving off your shoulder. Oh no his hand is moving onto your forehead.

“You’re **burning**.”

_But didn’t he do this once weren’t you at the bar and Kai was giving you his jacket and you were shivering and Kaneda came over and he said ‘You look like shit, Tetsuo!’ and he took off his glove and he felt your forehead and said –_

“No, really, you’re burning. You should go home.”

Tetsuo nods, now nauseated. He thinks he will.

X

He shivers at home, too.

He is alone, and he thinks, this is how it should be. He should be alone where he doesn’t have dangerous thoughts or dangerous abilities or anything he can ever use to hurt anybody else he meets. That life before was bad.

You were bad and you were selfish it is not that you do not want to hurt Kaneda.

You don’t want Kaneda to hurt you.

And that had hurt.                                                                                                                                                    (That gun)  
And that had hurt.                                                                                                                               (That fear in his eyes)  
And that had hurt.                                                                                                                                    (Not knowing him)  
And that had hurt.                                                           (Isolating him pushing him away wanting him to kill you)  
And that had hurt.                                                                                                                      (It had been all your fault)

Unbearable. Why are you remembering now? Not that. Not the end. The pain the mutation Kaori’s death the satellite laser attacking Kei Kaneda running telling you to run not running letting Kaneda hit you being consumed losing yourself you remember

                                                                                                                The first thing

(“why did you run away?  
                I didn’t want to hurt you  
                                I only wanted to be your friend”

                                                                                                “it will be nice…  
                                                                                                                to have a new…”)

Tetsuo misses his opportunity to scream in the sound of sudden explosion, colors and lights before his eyes and his neighbor, shouting. There is about to be a hole in the wall that separates them.

X

An adult. Fighting a child.

                (teru is only two years younger than you you are sixteen as you never lived to be he is fourteen and he should live a great deal longer.  
and he is still a child.)

Tetsuo is used to this. And Teru (this is where two and two make four) seems to be as well.

Teru is still sweating and shaking from his fever, the shock of losing, and Tetsu is feverish and shivered for another reason all together. It does not take much for him to launch the weirdo with the scar and ugly haircut from the building and he feels e x h i l e r a t e d and terrified when he does.

 _This is not how things were supposed to go. This was supposed to be different. If it was you who made this world, then isn’t that what you would have wanted? No power no pain no drugs no experiments no headaches no hunger just you and –_  “thank you”,         Teru smiles.        “it could be dangerous,                 two espers living here,                   but without your help,                           I don’t think I could have –“

Tetsuo puts a hand out to stop his words of gratitude because there is something outside and his senses are **burning** his nose is **burning** the hairs on his arm are **burning** his fever is **burning** and he is electrified

(but not happy.)

Tetsuo’s own jacket falls to the floor.

The telekinetic green outline, black, doubled over in gold that must be Teru, helping Tetsuo pull in –

                                                                                Kaneda.

“You left your jacket at work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun time to update these tags i am just jumping straight into the gay here


End file.
